


Weather The Storm

by gaymingtrash



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 14:18:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4749518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaymingtrash/pseuds/gaymingtrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorian and the Inquisitor have a rough conversation, and a rough night</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weather The Storm

Dorian and Kaleb lay in bed together the morning after the night before. Dorian stirred, and Kaleb, already awake, placed a gentle ‘wake up’ kiss on the man’s shoulder. He made a slight noise of contentment, and leaned over to brush Kaleb’s hair out of his face, who grinned at Dorian sleepily.

“Morning,” Kaleb said.

“Good morning,” Dorian replied, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

“So… that was, well, something,” Kaleb said.

“Mm,” Dorian said, non-committally.

“Tired?” Kaleb asked.

“Distracted,” Dorian answered. “I’m… wondering where this goes. You and I.” The truth was, he liked Kaleb a lot more than he wanted to admit. He was a good man - possibly too much of a people pleaser, but that only came from having a kind heart. He was funny, too, and held his own in an intelligent conversation. Now that Dorian had been intimate with him, he wondered if he’d perhaps gone a step too far. They’d been flirting a while - even shared a kiss - but the way they’d been last night was something else. Kaleb touched him desperation, but with tenderness, too. The push and pull of the night before - from gently grazed lips to a grip that must have left bruises - was something that Dorian had never experienced.

“Does this need to go anywhere?” Kaleb asked, with a cautious tone.

“No,” Dorian said, heart sinking. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

“I mean, if you’re happy with this staying casual, I’m happy,” Kaleb said.

“Deliriously so,” Dorian said, with a smile that felt forced - though he hoped it didn’t show. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.” He got up out of the bed and picked up his clothes, dressing as quickly as he could. He had nowhere to go, but he thought he’d hide in his quarters for a while. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but he had his back to the Inquisitor, and stayed that way in silence until he left.

He was a fool to think there would ever have been anything more between them.

* * *

Dorian wasn’t entirely sure why he’d been invited to the Storm Coast with Kaleb - particularly as it was only the two of them. He assumed he’d want to keep his distance outside of the bedroom, but perhaps that wasn’t an entirely fair assumption. They could still be friends, after all. Friends, lovers, but not together.

Dorian did not _like_ the Storm Coast. It was, as the name suggested, stormy - it ruined his hair, his clothing, and his shoes. As a man meticulous about his appearance, it was possibly the worst place he could be. They’d set up a camp not too far away on a previous trip, and Dorian hoped he could have some excuse to hide in it until it stopped raining. This was an unlikely scenario though - it never stopped raining there.

Or so he thought - it suddenly started hailing, instead of rain, with significantly large hailstones. Lighting struck in the not-so-distant distance, and the rumble of thunder followed it far too quickly for Dorian’s liking. He had a natural affinity for lightning magic, but sadly that did not make him lightning _proof_.

Kaleb was evidently thinking the same thing. “There’s a camp not too far from here - shall we run for it?” he said. He held out a hand for Dorian to take, and after a moment’s hesitation, he took it, and they ran together. Kaleb let out an exhilarated, breathless laugh as the hail bounced off his clothes. It was typical of him to somehow take joy in this atrocious weather.

They reached the camp, and huddled into a tent together, Kaleb graciously letting Dorian enter into the cramped space first. The tents were really only designed for one, but they weren’t going to sit apart from each other. It would have been stand-offish, and rude.

“Well, that was an adventure,” Kaleb said, brushing his damp fringe out of his eyes. “Here,” he said, leaning over to Dorian to push the hair out of his eyes too. It was a sweet gesture, but it felt both wrong and right at the same time. “Now we can both see, it’s a miracle. And what a sight for sore eyes you are.” Dorian smiled at him, but he felt confused.

He knew Kaleb was a people pleaser - was all this affection to soften the blow of rejection? If so, he didn’t want it. He didn’t need pandering to. He was an adult, and he’d handled being said ‘no’ to before.

As the evening came to be, with no sign of the storm letting up, they both decided to sleep.

* * *

_Dorian and Kaleb lay in bed together in Skyhold, Dorian dreamily trailing fingers over his lover’s body._

_There was a noise outside - a cry? - and he narrowed his eyes in confusion and suspicion._

_Footsteps, definitely footsteps._

_Kaleb shifted incrementally closer to Dorian, who drew the sheets up and over their chests._

_The door slammed open._

_It was one of the Pavus family guards._

_“Ser - you’ve got to come with me.” He shot a look at Kaleb, who was perplexed. “Sorry,” he added._

_“Why in Thedas are you here? Did nobody stop you? Leliana? Cassandra? The soldiers?”_

_“Dead or downed, ser. Your father requested you back, so we had to come get you.”_

_Horror rose in his chest. Not this. Not again. Not here, not now._

Dorian felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Dorian? You cried out in your sleep. Are you okay?” Kaleb asked, the weak morning sunlight filtering in through the tent flap illuminating the concern on his face.

Dorian took a sharp breath. “Nightmare. Sorry.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Oh, you know. Venatori, time travel, demons. You know how it is,” he lied.

Kaleb frowned sympathetically. Dorian felt him take his hand, and squeezed it.

“Would you look at that,” he said quietly. “The sunrise.”

“So it is,” Kaleb added. Dorian shuffled forward to open the tent flap more, and found that it gave them a perfect view, and on his return found himself leaning against Kaleb’s broad chest.

Together, there, they watched the sun rise, as shades of pink and gold filled the clear sky in front of them, never breaking apart.

* * *

They arrived back at Skyhold that evening barely drier than when they’d left the Storm Coast, despite the long journey.

“Maker,” Kaleb said, shaking his long hair like a wet dog as they walked up the steps to the castle. “I need hot food, and a hot bath.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” Dorian said.

“You don’t want to join me for dinner?” Kaleb asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no - I’ll just have a bath of my own and go to sleep, I think. It’s late, and I need my beauty sleep.”

“Alone? Wouldn’t you rather have… some company?” Kaleb’s said the last two words with a cheesy grin and an eyebrow waggle, and Dorian had to bite back a laugh. The man was funny, even if his sense of humour was far from refined, and the inevitable conversation that they were going to have made him sad to think about.

Dorian sighed. “Maybe I’ll drop by,” he said, and they made their separate ways, both a little dejected.

Later that evening came, and once both men had found themselves fed, clean and dry, Dorian went up to the Inquisitor’s quarters.

Kaleb beamed to see him. “Dorian! I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” he said.

“I’m not staying,” Dorian said. “We need to talk.”

“Oh,” Kaleb said, simply. 

“This isn’t easy,” Dorian started. “I like you - more than I should. If all you want out of ‘us’ is fun, then, well, I don’t think I can do that anymore.”

Kaleb closed his eyes and shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “Dorian, I like you too.”

“Not in the same way,” Dorian said, wishing that the Inquisitor hadn’t decided to drag this out and make it more uncomfortable.

“Yes, in the same way. Dorian, when you - when I said I only wanted to keep it casual, I thought that was what _you_ wanted.”

There was a moment of silence between them, where Kaleb looked up at Dorian standing in the doorway with sincerity on his face.

“You fool,” Dorian said quietly. Then one side of his moustache lifted, revealing half a smile. “You utter people pleaser,” he added, jovially.

“I’m the worst,” Kaleb agreed with a laugh. He threw back the corner of the duvet and Dorian took it as his cue to get in under the covers - clothes and all. Kaleb was glad he wasn’t wearing his usual ensemble with all the buckles - they dug in while cuddling.

Wordlessly they took to kissing, tugging at each other’s clothes with an unspoken “I missed you”, though the misunderstanding had only lasted a short while. The night was a mix of comforting familiarity and intriguing newness, coloured by the knowledge that they both felt the same way - this wasn’t just physical anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was meant to be pretty vignette-y, hence the shortness despite being multiple scenes. This was actually inspired by a -bunch- of randomly generated RP prompts, which all conveniently came together into one story.


End file.
